Moon Daemon

Chapter Fourteen - Memories

Marrok rushes me from the room, walking briskly to the library. "We need to find the others," he tells me, just as his eyes glaze over. I hear something soft and distant, almost like a thought, and I start to look around.

His eyes fall back on me curiously, and he stops walking.

"Esmeray?" he asks.

"Yeah?" I mumble, looking around again. Why does his voice sound so distant? My eyes find his and I stand in shock, listening to him asking me if I can hear him, clear as day, without his mouth moving.

"What the f**k?" I gasp, dropping his hand and moving back from him.

"You can hear my mind link," he tells me, smiling. "I didn't know if that was going to be possible since you're not a wolf. I'm glad to see that it does."

"Mind link?" I ask.

"The wolves in our pack are all linked, so I can reach out for anyone via that," he tells me.

"Accalia told me about that before," I remember. "I didn't know it just appeared like a thought in your head."

"You aren't connected to the others," he says. "Just me for right now. Because you aren't a wolf you won't be connected to the pack until you officially become Luna, I am the only one you can talk to."

"Weird," I mumble. "Can I talk back?"

"Try," he encourages.

"How?"

"I'm going to connect us," he tells me. "When you hear my link, hold on to it and try and answer me."

I nod, staring into his eyes as he grabs my hands.

Esmeray?

I gasp, closing my eyes and clinging to the connection between us.

Marrok.

"Yes!" he exclaims outloud and pulling me closer to him. Just like that.

This feels weird.

I hear him laugh. "I bet it is. I've grown up with the link, so I don't know any different. I couldn't imagine hearing that for the first time at this age."

"How do I talk to you without you linking us first?" I ask.

"You will get use to it," he says. "I'll link you randomly so you can get a better grasp of the connection. Soon you'll be able to conjure it up yourself."

His eyes glaze over again and my head tightens, I hear library.

"The other's will meet us down there," he says, releasing me and taking my hand, walking towards to library again.

"I can hear what you say to the others," I tell him. "Just not them."

"You will when you become Luna," he says. "You aren't connected to us yet because you're not a wolf, we can't just add you to the pack."

"I'll be able to talk to others?"

"Anyone in this pack," he says.

"And anyone can talk to me?" I ask, getting nervous.

It's not like I didn't notice the other wolves as we walked by, their shocked expressions as they see Marroks mark and him holding my hand. I wonder what they think about me, a daemon, intruding on their cultures.

"Yes, but don't worry, you aren't going to get a bunch of abusive links from the others," he grins. "You'll be Luna."

"What about Nova?"

"I doubt she'll do anything to compromise her current state," he says, turning the corner and opening the door to the library for me.

We walk in and I can already see the others sitting around a table.

"What's up Marrok?" Rollins asks.

"What I'm about to show you and tell you does not, in ANY circumstance, leave this room. Understood?"

"Yes Alpha," all four say at the same time.

"What I'm about to ask Esmeray to do is not comfortable," he says. "Accalia and Tala, I need you to keep your wolves at ease."

They nod without questioning.

I watch as he shuts his eyes tightly. "Esmeray, show them."

I stand there, awkwardly, before walking closer to the others. I turn and face away from them, before lifting my shirt over my head and holding it over my chest.

What started as a growl from the others, turned into gasps. I realize Marrok singled out the girls because he knew I was going to have to take my shirt off in front of their mates.

"What is it?" I hear Conan ask, his voice getting closer to me.

"It's my mark," Marrok says between clenched teeth as the others approach me.

"Your mark?!" Accalia gasps.

"I don't know why it's different," he says, finally unclenching his jaw after, what I assume was, his internal arguement with Thorin.

"I didn't notice it until after we returned from speaking to Hekate."

"Speaking to Hekate?" Tala asks. "Where?"

"She summoned us to her kingdom," Marrok explains. "She was discussing what happens next now that we marked each other."

"She marked you?" Accalia shrieks, running to her brother and moving his face to look at his mark as well. Her eyes widen, and she pulls at his shirt.

"What are you doing?" he growls.

"Stop moving," she argues, but Marrok continues to push her away. "For Goddess sake," she snarls, ripping his shirt in the back. I watch as Marrok turns angrily towards her before hearing the gasps from the others. Marrok turns and looks at them confused. "What?"

"Her mark," Rollins says, approaching him. "It's different."

"Different how?"

I look over at Rollins mark, and notice that it looks exactly like Marrok's did last night right after I did it. When I look at Marroks now, its fuller, darker, and bigger than the others, extending slightly down the back of his neck onto his spine. I see the original mark, lightly showing from a dark circle taking up the majority of the mark.

"Hers looks like the phases of the moon," Tala says, examining my mark more. "All of them, extending down her back."

"Why is his different from hers though?" Conan asks.

Tala's eyes widen next to me, looking from my mark to Marroks.

"Oh my Goddess," she whispers. "It's not different, it's a completion."

"What?" I ask.

"There's one phase of the moon that no one ever thinks about," she explains, and I realize what she's talking about. "You don't have that phase."

"The Dark Moon," I whisper, watching as the others realize what Tala was talking about. "His mark is the Dark Moon."

"Whoa," Rollins says. "Together you two complete the cycle of the moon."

I turn away from the others, rushing to put my shirt back on. Marrok made Accalia take a picture of his neck and is examining it with Rollins.

"Maybe it's because she's a daemon," Rollins offers.

"No," Marrok says. "This is something different. This is what Hekate was explaining to us earlier.

I sit back and listen to Marrok explain to the others about our summoning and conversation with Hekate. If they were shocked by this news, they did a very good job at hiding it. I watch as they nod, discussing between them what it could mean.

"So where do we start?" Accalia asks.

"I thought the library would be the best place," Marrok says. "Rollins, I need you to go and find the Angel."

"On it," he says, standing and walking from the library.

"I don't know how yet, but I feel like he's going to play a big part in this," Marrok tells me.

"What do we do?" Tala asks.

Marrok looks at me, an eyebrow raised. I let out a sigh. "I need to find everything we possibly can about Vilark."

"Already on it," Accalia says, walking around a book shelf sitting on a computer. "There's a couple books, but we can probably find more about him on the internet."

"Conan, find the books," Marrok says, grabbing my hand and walking us to where Accalia sits. I watch as she types away on the computer, bringing up articles and stories about Vilark.

I never realized it until now, but I never really knew what Vilark looked like. I've heard stories, everyone has, but I never had access like this to read more about him and actually see him. It's strange; I never really thought about what he could look like, but I didn't expect him to look so normal.

Hearing stories about the monster he became, I almost expected someone who resembled a monster, with sharp teeth and claws hidden beneath his dark cloak, but in reality, he looked almost normal. He has a prominent jaw, covered by a beard, and long hair. His eyes were dark, almost completely black, but they didn't look evil. I felt a strange sensation growing within my stomach the longer I looked at the picture of the man who was responsible for the war that we fight in today.

"Weird, right?" Accalia says, breaking me from my trance. "He looks so normal."

"I know," I whisper. "How can that be the man who started all of this?"

Accalia shrugs, clicking on articles talking about how he drank the blood of a daemon to gain abilities that were beyond comprehension.

I hear the door open and see Rollins and Raziel enter the library. Raziel looks disheveled, his eyes heavy and his hair falling messily around his ears.

"I thought we slept during the day," he complains as he approaches, rubbing his eyes. "Kept me up all night training only to wake me up four hours later."

"Get over it," Marrok says, looking back at the computer screen. "We need your help."

Raziel stands next to me, looking down at the screen. "Vilark?" he asks.

"We spoke to Hekate earlier," I tell him, watching as curiousity floods his face. "Right before we received these." I lift my shirt and show him the bottom of my mark.

"Interesting," he says, bending down and looking at them closely.

"Marrok's looks like the only phase that's not on me," I tell him. "The Dark Moon."

"Fitting for the Alpha of the Dark Moon pack," Raziel says, yawning. "That's some 'Chosen One' s**t right there."

"Do you know what it means?" I ask.

"I've never seen or heard anything like it," he says, turning his attention back to the screen. Conan returns with several books and puts them down on a nearby table.

"So what do we know?" Marrok asks.

"Vilark was a seriously disturbed person," Accalia says, printing out article after article about him.

"He gained his powers by drinking the blood of a daemon," Tala offers.

"Not just any daemon," Raziel says. "A shadow daemon."

"And no other shadow daemons were created after, exept me," I chime in.

"Yes, good," Raziel says. "Keep going with that."

"How?" I ask.

"Not the right question," he says.

I crunch my eyebrows forward and stare at him.

"Why?" I ask.

"Yes, why," Raziel says, looking up at me.

"Why am I special?" I ask. "This all happened before I was even born."

Marrok looks at the books on the table, walking over and flipping through some pages. "What about the daemon he drank from?" he asks.

"That's a good question," Raziel says, ushering me closer to him.

"Who was she?" I ask.

"All we know is that she was a shadow daemon and was orphaned as a child, Vilark took her in and raised her like his own," Accalia says.

"He raised her so that he could figure out how to use her to become supernatural like she was," Tala says. "He wasn't doing it out of the goodness of his heart."

"Why wait?" I ask, watching as the others turn to me. "Why wait so long to drink her blood?"

"Maybe he thought that was something that can be transferred differently," Conan chimes in. "If I wanted supernatural powers, my first instinct would not be to drink the blood of someone; he was human, anyway, not a vampire."

"That's fair," Tala says. "He probably waited so long and tried different ways of acquiring power."

"Drinking blood does not normally mean inherenting abilities," Rollins says. "Vampires do it all the time."

"They drink human blood," Accalia argues. "Vampires normally stray from drinking from the supernatural."

We stare at the books for a second, Accalia still typing away at the computer.

"I feel like we need to know who the daemon was," I whisper. "I feel like that's important."

"Is there anything about her?" Marrok asks.

"I'm looking," Accalia asks.

"It sounds like mixing the blood of supernatural and human is what created Vilark," Raziel says. "But mixing blood of two supernaturals does nothing. Didn't you use your blood to heal Rae?"

Marrok nods, his eyebrows furrowing.

"Here she is," Accalia calls out. "Her name is Neriah."

I stand and approach the computer, looking down at an article about Neriah and Vilark. Accalia is scrolling through the article when she comes across a picture of her.

I feel someone come and stand next to me, but I don't bother to look at who it was, because I am lost in the picture. I take note of Neriah's face, her eyes, her features, and feel something familiar arise into my stomach like I had before. I narrow my eyes and get closer to the screen, lost in thought.

"Don't hurt me Cujo," I hear distantly from Raziel before my world flashes white around me.

I open my eyes and blink through my discomfort. I look over at Raziel who is brushing dust off his shoulder. "Where did you take me?" I ask, my voice distant and echoing.

He shrugs. "You brought us here."

I look around and feel a sense of familiarity of the surrounding walls. I step into the dark room and hear the cooing of a mother to her newborn, and I start to get a sense of her face. It's blurry, and I have a hard time focusing on her directly. My mind flashes to the memory of looking up at her from when I was a infant, to her soft and calming voice talking to me.

My mind blanks as I can finally see her face clearly, the same face I was looking at ont he computer screen. Neriah, who looked like she was only around fifteen years old, craddled a small baby with black hair and silver eyes.

I turn my attention to Raziel, who is standing and taking everything in as well, when the door opens and we watch as Vilark himself enters my memory, ripping me from the girls arms, and my memory goes black.

I scream, my world going white before returning to the library with Raziel. Marrok catches me as my legs give out, the others curiously watching from behind him.

I don't know when the tears started, but they're streaming down my face now like a river. I attempt to catch my breath as I look over at Raziel, who is standing in the corner, one hand in his hair, looking as shocked as I was.

"Oh Goddess," he whispers. "It can't be."

"What happened?!" Marrok ushers me to talk to him, but I am still hyperventilating. "What did you see?"

"Neriah," I gasp, still attempting to calm my breathing.

"You knew her?" Accalia asks, approaching me.

I nod, my sobs finally allowing me to intact air enough to breathe properly.

"Raziel?" Marrok snaps. "What happened."

Raziel is still in the same position, his eyes wildly looking around as he tries to grasp what just happened as well.

"Neriah," I try again, my voice breaking inbetween sobs. "Neriah is my mother."

Tala drops a book she was holding, and the rest of them realize what I mean.

"That means-" Marrok whispers, looking back at Raziel.

"That's why Rae is the key," Raziel says.

With my breathing finally calmed down enough where I can stop crying, I look around the room at everyone. My eyes catch Marrok's, a sense of calming overcoming my senses.

It's okay, he links to me.

"That means Vilark is my father."